The New York City Retirement Systems are investing a massive amount of money to build and sustain affordable housing across the five boroughs.

New York—The five New York City Retirement Systems have said they will invest $150 million in pension capital in the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust (HIT). The HIT, for its part, plans a new strategy to build and sustain affordable housing in the five boroughs using all-union labor.

Specifically, the HIT unveiled a new phase of its New York City Investment Strategy, the goal of which over the next seven years is to preserve the affordability of 12,500 to 15,000 housing units and build 5,000 to 7,500 new housing units in the city. The HIT will also work with city and state agencies to finance and improve affordable public housing.

The HIT effort to preserve housing stock will be focused on the massive Mitchell-Lama and Limited Dividend developments. Mitchell-Lama and Limited Dividend were built between 1928 and 1978, and of the 149,000 units originally built, about 40,000 units have opted out of affordable housing programs and 77,000 units are potentially eligible to opt out.

Many of their units would benefit from repair and refinance. The HIT plans to begin implementing preservation work this fall, with a goal of preserving between 12,500 and 15,000 affordable units over the next five years, targeting between $300 million and $400 million for preservation projects.

In financing new construction, the HIT plans to partner with the nonprofit United Clergy Task Force (UCTF). A coalition of union labor and development groups, the UCTF has identified seven faith-based institutions to work with and created a pipeline of mixed-use projects. The HIT will target $400 million for affordable housing construction.

The five New York City Retirement Systems are the New York City Employees’ Retirement System; the Teachers’ Retirement System of the City of New York; the New York City Police Pension Fund Subchapter Two; the New York City Fire Department Pension Fund Subchapter Two; and the New York City Board of Education Retirement System.